The 12th Task
by PersonNatalie
Summary: Kim knew that no one could ever replace her father. So when Alan Beckham begins dating her mother, she automatically hates him. But when her mom gives Alan a set of 12 tasks, the final one being bonding with the kids, will Kim realize how much Alan wants her to like him? Or will Jack have to help her figure it out? Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**So, I got an idea for a new fanfic and I decided to write it. I don't know if it's very good and I'd appreciate if you let me know if I should continue. It has some Kick moments in it and I'm not sure yet if Kim and Jack should get together or not in this fanfic. It would be later on though. It will be a mix of a Kick story and a story about Kim's relationship with her soon-to-be stepfather.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kickin' it.**

Alan Beckham had been given twelve tasks. Sort of like Hercules I guess. These twelve tasks could determine whether or not he was a good addition to the Crawford family. He was given these tasks by Sarah Crawford, the love of his life. The woman he would marry. The tasks consisted of cooking, cleaning, making a good impression on Sarah's parents, yard work, taking care of the cat, feeding the dog, and other things like that.

Alan finished the first eleven tasks pretty quickly. He had some mishaps such as accidentally setting off the smoke alarm which freaked out the cat who attacked him and nearly falling off the ladder when cleaning the gutters but other than that, he was doing pretty well.

Then came the twelfth task; bonding with the kids.

This one was the most challenging. The oldest daughter, Lucy who was 21 wasn't too hard, as she would do anything for her mother's happiness. Sarah's youngest child and only son, 11 year old John could be a challenge but the hardest one would be the middle child, Sarah's 13 year old daughter, Kim.

-line break-

Kim was what her mom would call difficult. She was the one who took it the hardest when her parents divorced five years ago. She had been really close to her dad. But now he was miles and miles away and only called on occasion.

Their mom had forced them to move to Seaford after the divorce was final and Kim, John, and Lucy hadn't seen their father since.

As soon as her mom had started dating Alan, Kim hated him. No one could ever replace her father. She made this clear to Alan the second he met her.

The only one she talked to about this kind of stuff was her best friend, Jack Anderson. Sure, her other friends knew she moved to Seaford because of her parents' divorce but none of them but Jack knew about Alan or how much the divorce had affected her.

"Hey."

The sound of Jack's voice broke her from her thoughts. She had been in the dojo beating a punching dummy senseless but stopped when Jack entered the room.

"Hey Jack," she greeted.

"What are you doing here so late?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same question."

"I was with the guys at Falafel Phil's and I saw the lights on in here. I figured it was you and decided to give you some company," Jack told her. "Now you."

"Alan came over to have dinner with us. Apparently Mom put him up to these twelve tasks or something," Kim replied.

"Like Hercules?" Jack asked.

Kim shrugged. "I guess."

"What kind of tasks?"

"Taking care of the house, cleaning and stuff like that. He's on his last one now. Bonding with John, Lucy, and me," Kim said.

"Knowing you, that will definately be a challenge for him. I actually feel sorry for the guy," Jack laughed.

Kim glared at him but decided to ignore it. "I know he'll have Lucy down pretty quickly since she'll do anything for Mom. I don't know if John really cares but I do. And I'm going to do anything to keep him from marrying Mom."

"Why do you hate him so much? He didn't cause the divorce you know." As soon as he said that, he wished he hadn't. He realized that he had brought up a very sore subject for Kim. The quick look of hurt that flashed in her eyes made him feel guilty.

"Are you saying I was?" Kim asked.

"No, of course not! All I'm saying is that Alan may not be such a bad guy. You just have to give him a try."

"Whatever. Can we please just talk about something else?"

Jack nodded and they were soon deep in conversation about their upcoming tournament.

-line break-

Lucy sat in the living room, reading a book when there was a knock at the door. She got up to answer the door. It was Alan. He was there to go with them to Kim's karate tournament.

"Hey Alan," she greeted with a smile. "Come on in."

Alan followed Lucy in to the house. They sat at the table just as Kim came down the stairs in her gi. She saw Alan and walked towards the door.

"Kim, aren't you going to ride with us?" Lucy asked.

"No thanks, I'll walk," Kim muttered.

"Alan's here."

Alan waved to her. "Hey."

"I know." Kim kept walking.

"Aren't you going to say hi?" Lucy asked.

"Nope." Kim walked out and slammed the door behind her.

Lucy sighed.

"Maybe it's not such a good idea to go to the tournament," Alan said. "I want to go and support her but it feels that my support just upsets her."

"No, please come. And I don't think it's you she hates. She's just upset about the divorce and everything," Lucy assured him.

"I'll do anything for her to accept me. Do you think going to the tournament will help?" he asked.

"It's a small step. But it's one step closer to getting her to like you," Lucy replied.

"I hope you're right."

-line break-

Kim was out of their as soon as the tournament was finished. She didn't want to hear any congratulations from Alan on winning the match. Jack followed her as she left the dojo.

"Kim!" he called.

She slowed down for him to catch up.

"You can't keep running from Alan you know. You're going to have to face him sometime," he said.

"Please don't bring this up again," Kim pleaded.

"Fine. How about you come join us at Circus Burger to celebrate the match?" Jack offered.

"Alright." Kim followed behind him as they went to celebrate.

And as she laughed and talked with them, she almost forgot about Alan.

Almost.

**That's it! Chapter 1 :D. I hope you like it. Please review and tell me if it's worth continuing. If I get 5-10 reviews then I will continue.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2! Thanks for the reviews :D Thank you to those who reviewed.**

**nclhdrs1717**

**uniquemusician**

**AbberzzzCain**

**And also thank you to my guest reviewer.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin' it.**

Kim ran downstairs, slung her backpack over her shoulder, grabbed her lunch, and headed for the door. Her mom blocked her path.

"No way are you walking to school in the rain," She told Kim.

"Then I'll ride my bike," Kim said quickly. She knew where this was going.

"Not that either. Alan's here and he's going to take you and John to school."

"No way. I'm not letting him take me to school!" Kim exclaimed.

"Well how are you going to get to school? I have to leave for work and that's nowhere near your school. And Lucy can't take you since she left for school already." **(AN: Lucy still lives with them even though she's in college since she doesn't want to live in a dorm and she wanted to make things easier for her mom by staying nearby.)**

"Please can I walk? I have my jacket and I could take an umbrella," Kim pleaded.

"No. You're riding with Alan and that's final. I have to leave for work now so be good. Bye guys!" She waved goodbye to Alan and John. She tried to give Kim a hug but Kim just pulled away. "Bye Kim." Then she left.

-line break-

Kim sat in the front seat of the car and sulked. How was she supposed to avoid Alan when he had to drive her to school? Kim ignored Alan who was saying goodbye after her dropped her off and kept walking.

-line break-

By the afternoon, the rain had cleared up and she and Jack were walking home from school. John was tagging along behind them, kicking a rock down the sidewalk.

"So where are Milton, Eddie, and Jerry?" Kim asked.

"Eddie has a date, Milton's taking an afterschool science course or something, and Jerry has detention," Jack replied.

"What's he in for this time?"

"I have no idea. But I'm surprised that he hasn't run out of ways to mess with the teachers by now."

As they stopped in front of her house, Kim turned to Jack. "Do you want to come in and work on some homework or something?" She asked.

"Sure," Jack said, following Kim and John inside.

"Hey Lucy, we're home! Jack's here!" Kim called.

Lucy walked into the room. "Hey guys. Hi Jack," she greeted. "Mom's still stuck at work so she may not be home for a while. Do you guys want anything to eat?" She asked.

"We'll find something," Kim replied.

Kim, John, and Jack went into the kitchen. Kim looked through the cabinets. "What do you want?" she asked Jack

"Anything's fine."

"How about popcorn?" Kim suggested.

"Sounds good," Jack replied.

Kim pulled out a bag of popcorn and set it in the microwave. As they waited, they pulled out their backpacks and looked for something to work on.

"Let's start with Social Studies."** (AN: My favorite subject :D)**

They were working on Ancient Greece.

As soon as they pulled out their World History books, the microwave went off, indicating that the popcorn was done. Kim poured it into two separate bowls. One for John and one for her and Jack to share.

As they ate the popcorn, they worked on their homework on Ancient Greece. **(AN: My social studies teacher this year had my class make a book about Ancient Greece where we wrote about myths we read, went hunting for Greek columns in our city, and stuff like that. I made my own full set of playing cards of mythical creatures. I decided to have them have the same assignment :D)**

"What myths are you doing?" Jack asked.

"The one about Helios, the god of the sun and the one about Echo and Narcissus," Kim replied.

"How did Echo and Narcissus go?" Jack asked.

"Well, Echo loved to talk. She was a-" Kim was cut off by the doorbell ringing.

"I'll get it!" John called, running to the door to answer. He opened the door.

"Hey John." Kim groaned when she heard Alan's voice.

"Let's go upstairs." They grabbed their backpacks and Kim dragged Jack towards the stairs.

"Hey Kim."

Kim just sighed and crossed her arms.

Alan shook Jack's hand. "You must be Jack."

"And you must be Mr. Beckham," Jack greeted.

"Just call me Alan."

"Thanks." Jack was grabbed by Kim.

"Come on. Let's go," she said pulling him upstairs.

"He seems nice," Jack said as they entered Kim's room.

"I don't care if he's nice. He's not my dad."

"Kim, Alan's not trying to replace your dad. He's just trying to be a great stepfather," Jack told her.

Kim was quiet for a moment. "Whatever. Let's just work on our homework."

-line break-

Jack didn't understand why Kim didn't like Alan. Then again, he didn't know what it would be like if his dad wasn't around. He knew Jerry's parents were also divorced but he got to see his dad all the time.

But Alan seemed so nice. He seemed better than Kim's father who appeared to be so busy he didn't even call unless it was Christmas or one of their birthdays. Alan showed up for every one of Kim's karate tournaments, offered to drive her to school, and so many things that Kim's father didn't do. Jack knew that James Crawford loved his kids but he never had time for them like Alan did. So why didn't Kim appreciate everything Alan did? It wasn't Alan's fault that James wasn't the greatest dad.

It was all so confusing to Jack. Lucy seemed to like Alan. And from what Kim had told him, John was always eager to see him. But Lucy was Lucy, the girl who was nice to everyone and Alan had been hanging out with John a lot who agreed to doing things with Alan, unlike Kim.

Why did Kim hate Alan so much?

**Thanks for reading. Please review! 5 more reviews and I'll update again. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the reviews! I've been writing a lot today(working on Chapter 4 now) and I just had to update again. If I don't update again today after this, it may be a little bit before I update again since I'm moving in three days and my mom's and my brother's laptops will probably be packed away. Even if my older sister's was still out then she probably wouldn't let me use it anyways. So I may not be able to update again until next Monday. I don't know when I can finish Chapter 4 though since my little sister will probably want me to play a wii game with her. But until then, here's Chapter 3!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin' It. **

Kim entered the house after coming home from the dojo to see that her mom was making dinner. She had great news and wanted to tell her family at dinner.

"Hey Kim," her mom greeted. "Can you set the table for dinner for me?"

"Sure." Kim set out four plates and forks around the table.

"Oh, and set another plate for Alan," her mom told her.

Kim stopped and looked up at her mom who looked at her sternly. She sighed and set an extra place for Alan.

She helped her mom serve the pasta to each place. Alan came in and as soon as he did, Kim went off to get John and Lucy for dinner. She suddenly didn't feel like sharing her good news anymore.

When they came down, Alan and their mom were already seated at the table, waiting patiently for them. They all sat down and said blessing. Kim avoided eye contact from Alan the whole time.

Kim ate quietly as she listened to Alan and her family talk.

"So Kim, how's your Ancient Greece project going?" Alan asked.

"Fine," Kim mumbled. She turnes to her mom. "May I be excused?"

Sarah sighed. "Alright."

She got up to clear her plates and then headed up the stairs. She entered her room, sat on her bed, and pulled out her laptop. She liked to send emails to her dad but he didn't always answer back. She wanted to share the good news with her dad.

To: Dad

Hey Dad!

Guess what? Rudy told us that since we won our karate tournament on Saturday we get to move on to a state tournament! This is the first time that's happened with this dojo! Is there any chance that you can come? It would really mean a lot to me.

Love you!

-Kim

Kim pressed send and then sat back to wait for a reply. While waiting, she typed up some things for her Ancient Greece project. She was working on a chart of the Olympian gods. She finished the chart and printed it out. She had left a little blank spot next to each god so she could draw their symbols. She ran downstairs to grab the paper from the printer and ran back up before anyone spotted her so she wouldn't get dragged into a conversation with Alan and her family.

She entered her room and closed the door before getting back to work. She was in the middle of drawing an arrow for Artemis when she heard the alert sound for an email. She put her pen down and clicked on her email. It was a reply from her dad.

To: Kim

Congratulations on winning your tournament! I knew you could do it. I'll try to make it but I can't promise anything. Say hi to John and Lucy for me.

-Dad

Kim closed her laptop and went back to drawing the arrow for Artemis. Knowing her father, Kim knew that he probably wouldn't be able to come and wouldn't say anything about it until after the tournament. She finished the arrow drawing and moved on to Hades.

-line break-

The next day after school, Kim and Jack waited outside the elementary school for John. He came out a few moments, with a huge smile on his face as he carried a robot he had built for the 5th grade Young Inventor's competition.

"Guess what?" He said, excitedly as they walked towards home.

"What?" Kim asked.

"I won first place! My invention was chosen to represent the school in a big competition with kids from other schools!" John exclaimed.

"Awesome!" Kim said, giving her little brother a high five.

Jack also gave him a high five. "Great job. When is it?"

"In a couple weeks. The day before your big tournament," John replied. "Could you email Dad for me later and tell him about the competition?"

Kim nodded. "Sure."

John ran into the house to share the news, Jack and Kim following behind him. They went upstairs to Kim's room to work on homework.

"How's your project coming along?" Jack asked.

"I'm almost done with the chart on the Olympian gods," Kim replied. "How about you?"

"Same," Jack said, picking up a picture off the bookshelf and looking at it.

Kim came up behind him and smiled. "That's my dad and me at one of my karate tournaments when I was in second grade. The divorce happened not much later after that. Then I moved here."

Jack set the photo back on the bookshelf and turned to Kim.

He smiled. "You know, there's one good thing that came out of your parents' divorce."

"What's that?" Kim asked.

"If then divorce never happened then you wouldn't be in Seaford. And if you had never been in Seaford, then I would never have met you."

**Sorry this chapter is short. I just thought Jack's line would be a good place to end the chapter. 5 more reviews and I'll try to update. Thanks for reading! Now to start packing!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey all you awesome readers of Fanfiction. PersonNatalie here with a new chapter of The 12****th**** Task! **** I decided to show more of the guys in this chapter and actually a bit of Kim's dad. This chapter introduces you to some of the subplots of the story. Hope you like it! Btw, if you noticed some spelling errors and things like that in this chapter or the previous chapters, it's because I typed my chapters on my iPod.**

Jerry Martinez was in love. Sure, he had liked many other girls before, but this was different. He had never really truly loved those girls. And now he couldn't even remember them because there was only one girl on his mind.  
That girl was Grace Ryan.  
Jerry knew he wasn't supposed to be feeling this way. Not when she was dating his best friend. He could never do that to Eddie.  
"Kids! Dinner!"  
The sound of his mother's voice interrupted his thoughts and he headed downstairs to join his family for dinner.  
He took a seat at the dining room table between the twins, Marcus and Maya and after answering a few questions from his mom about how school was going, he went back to thinking about Grace. His peaceful daydream was soon rudely interrupted by his siblings.  
"You seem out of it today Jerry. You thinking about anything? Or anyone? A girl maybe?" His older sister, Isabel teased.  
"Shut up," Jerry mumbled, shooting his sister an annoyed look.  
Maya was suddenly interested. "Who is it?"  
"I bet it's that blonde chick he's always hanging out with," Carlos remarked.  
Marcus grinned. "She's so hot."  
"No, it's not Kim," Jerry said quickly.  
Isabel raised her eyebrows. "Ohh. So there is someone then?"  
"I never said that!" Jerry exclaimed. "Can we please just talk about something else?"  
His siblings were disappointed that they weren't going to find out who his mystery crush was but they agreed and changed the subject. But Jerry didn't hear a word they said because he was thinking about Grace again.  
**xxxx**  
This was a big night for Milton. It was the night that he and Julie would be introducing their families to each other. They had spent the week creating a list of things to ensure that everything would go perfectly. Julie had made sure that her younger sister, Ally would keep their little brother, Nick out of trouble and Milton had observed his mother carefully while she prepared dinner, ready to stop her if she made even the smallest mistake. It was a few hours before Julie and her family would be coming over and Milton was beginning to stress over what her parents would think of him.  
"What if they don't like me? What if they say I can't date Julie anymore?"  
"Calm down Milton. Everything's going to go great," Kim reassured him. "Her parents are going to love you."  
"But what if they don't?"  
"You've seen the movies. If they say you can't date her, tell them how much you love her and nothing they do will keep you away from her. Then they'll be amazed and realize that you're perfect for each other and then blah blah blah you and Julie live happily ever after," Kim replied.  
"That really works?" Milton asked.  
"Most of the time...but they'll like you anyway so you probably don't have to use that."  
"I hope you're right Kim."  
And Kim was right. Julie's parents had instantly taken a liking in her boyfriend, impressed by how much of a gentleman he was. Both Milton and Julie's parents had declared the two perfect for each other.  
That night, Milton took a marker and placed a large x on his calender, and smiled to himself. Everything was going perfectly.  
**xxxx**  
Around the same time, Eddie had been on a date with Grace but it was different than the last few times. It wasn't as fun. Their hearts just weren't in it. Both of them had decided they were in love with someone else but were worried about breaking the other's heart. After a long moment of silence, Grace finally spoke up.  
"Eddie, we need to talk."  
He nodded in agreement as Grace began.  
"I don't really think this is working out."  
Eddie shook his head. "Me neither."  
"So do you think we should-"  
"Break up? I guess so."  
"We can still be friends, right?" Grace asked.  
Eddie nodded and smiled. "Of course."  
They both felt relief as they got up from the table. And then the two went their separate ways.  
**xxxx**  
Jack grabbed two cans of coke and plopped onto the couch beside his older sister. "Hey Mags. Whatcha watchin'?" He asked, handing one of the sodas to her.  
She thanked him and shrugged. "Oh just a show. I don't even like it that much," she admitted. She turned to her brother. "Soooo, what's going on between you and Kim?"  
Jack rolled his eyes and took a sip of coke. "I don't know what you're talking about."  
"Come on Jack. I've seen the way you look at her. And you've been going to her house practically every day. You obviously like her."  
"No I don't."  
"Yes you do."  
"No I don't."  
"Yes you do."  
"Yes I do."  
"No you don't. Aw dang it!" Maggie crossed her arms, feeling defeated.  
Her younger brother grinned. "You can't beat me."  
Suddenly, Maggie smiled. "I guess you're just too chicken to admit you like her."  
"I am not!"  
"Then why don't you right now?" She challenged.  
"I think I will. I like Kim! Ha, see I'm no chicken-" He froze when he realized what he had just told his sister and face-palmed. "I'm an idiot." Then he sighed. "Okay, I like Kim. So what?"  
Maggie smirked. "I knew it! Jackie's got a girlfriend!"  
"What are you, five? And she's not my girlfriend. We're just friends."  
Maggie shook her head. "You keep on telling yourself that Jackie."  
Jack rolled his eyes and soon his attention was back on the TV.  
**xxxx**  
Kim lay on her bed that night, her laptop in front of her as she checked her email. She had sent an email to her dad a few hours ago, telling him about John's invention but he hadn't replied. Alan was downstairs with her family. She could hear them laugh and she wanted so badly to be a part of that, but she just couldn't do it. She hated Alan, right?  
She thought about what Jack had told her. How they never would have become friends if her parents hadn't divorced. What would have happened if she had never moved?  
She closed her laptop and put it away as she pulled out her book, hoping to forget about her dad and Alan. It was Agatha Christie's _And Then There Were None_. (**AN: OMG I love this book so much. If you haven't read it, YOU NEED TO! IT'S SO EPIC!**) Alan must have left sometime while she was reading but she was too engaged in the book to notice. (**AN: This next part is an actual line from the book.**) _"There was somebody in the room...somebody all wet and dripping...Beatrice Taylor come from the river.  
She had only to turn her head and she would see her.  
But she couldn't turn her head...  
If she were to call out...  
There was no one else in the house. She was all alone...  
She heard footsteps-"  
_Suddenly, Kim's door swung open, causing her to shriek and fall off her bed. Then she realized it was only John.  
"Gosh John! Don't do that to me!"  
He chuckled, handing her the book that had fallen of the bed as well as she picked herself up of the floor. "Sorry. Didn't know you were reading a murder mystery."  
"Yeah, well I was." She sat back down on her bed.  
"Did Dad say anything about my invention?" John asked hopefully.  
"I'll check." Kim grabbed her laptop and pulled up her email. There was one from her aunt, a couple forward messages from Grace, some spam, and one from Rudy, but none from her dad.  
"Sorry bud," she told her brother, giving him a sympathetic smile.  
But being the optimist he is, John just smiled at his older sister and said. "It's cool."  
"Is there anything else you wanted?" Kim asked.  
John sighed. "Yeah...I know you really don't like to talk about it but..."  
Kim raised an eyebrow. "But...?"  
"Why can't you just be nice to Alan?"  
Kim frowned. "Yeah, let's talk about something else."  
"I'm serious Kim."  
She sighed. "Look John, I just don't like him, okay?"  
"But why?" John cried. "Mom likes him, Lucy likes him, I like him. Why can't you?"  
Kim didn't answer. She just crossed her arms and looked down at the floor.  
John lowered his voice. "I know you're still upset about Dad but trust me, Alan isn't going to replace him. He just wants to be a part of your life."  
"Well I don't want him in my life."  
"Please. Can you just give him a chance?" John pleaded.  
Kim was taken aback by the look on her brother's face. He had never looked more serious in his life than he did now.  
She sighed. "I don't know."  
**xxxx**  
James Crawford sat at the desk in his office he had in his apartment, going through his email. There was one email that caught his attention. It was from his daughter.  
To: Dad  
Hey Dad!  
Guess what? You know how John entered that Young Inventor's contest at school? Well he won 1st place! And his invention is going to represent his school in an even bigger contest! Isn't that great? Anyways, John and I would love to hear from you so if you could please answer back that would be great.  
Love,  
Kim :)  
James smiled, proud of his kids. He was about to reply when there was a knock at his door.  
"Hello? James?"  
It was his girlfriend of five months, Mary. Dang, he still had to tell his kids about that. He looked back at the email.  
"James?" Mary called again.  
"I'll answer it later," he said to himself as he closed out of his email and opened the door for Mary.  
Mary kissed him. "So where are we going for dinner tonight honey?" she asked him.  
"Why don't we eat in?" James suggested.  
"Alright," Mary agreed.  
James served some chicken and rice and they began to eat. Over dinner, they discussed work and their relationship and by the time they finished and Mary had left, James felt like he was forgetting something.  
"Oh well," he thought to himself. "It's probably not important."

**Not exactly my best work…but anyway, if all of you could review and tell me what you liked or didn't like about this chapter, that would be awesome. Also, I know how most of this story is going to go, I just need help on one thing, a subplot for Rudy. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll have a new chapter up soon! **

**-Natalie**


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